Life And Death
by TheBigBadWolf1
Summary: The world as we know it has fallen. The dead have risen and they now roam the Earth, feeding on the living. They're called walkers. Day by day, many people try to survive among the ruins of mankind. Follow the tales of some of those survivors throughout the apocalypse.
1. Chapter 1

**The Walking Dead – Life Or Death**

**Episode 1: Who We Once Were**

**Part 1**

**Atlanta's Local Zoo, Day 4, 7:57 AM.**

**Steve Leopard**

Steve cracked open his eyes, suddenly being awakened from his slumber. He rose his torso and leaned on his arms. He was huffing the air violently, and noticed great amounts of sweat draining out of his skin; drenching his hair and t-shirt in water. He calmed himself down, by breathing regularly and by waving his hand in front of his face to send a fresh breeze against himself.

Another night, another nightmare. Every time he drifted off to sleep, he would constantly repeat those images vividly on his head…

* * *

><p><em>Both Steve and a second man are standing in the middle of a town. The village is deserted, papers flow along with the wind, wrecked cars are clashed against poles and shops' vitrines and not a single person was visible. The man accompanying him is his father and they both look alike. They both bear proudly a safari hat on top of their heads. Their heads blossom of blonde hair and their cheeks germinate with hay-colored beards. Their clothing consists of dark blue jeans and hiking boots. The only differences between the two men is the fact that their shirts are of diverging colors; his father's being green and his being blue.<em>

_They decide to go inside a grocery store to get food for themselves since they're starving. But they are ambushed by bandits. They try to fight back, but are being overwhelmed. Steve's father is too distracted shooting back at the punks that he doesn't notice a walker lunging at him from an alley behind him. Steve spins around but isn't able to warn his father in time. The undead corpse bites viciously his dad's shoulder, but the walker keeps sinking his teeth on anything he can reach. Steve essays to get to his dad, as his eyes are dripping with tears and his gestures are weak, before a bullet punctures his leg. And then, seeing he's cornered, the only thing he's able to do is run away like a coward, leaving his father to face his demise…_

* * *

><p>Back in reality, Steve shook his head to dissipate those thoughts away. He got up, and began dressing his clothes.<p>

Steve was now living inside a spacious public bathroom. Not the best place to live, but it was the only solid building inside the zoo he inhabited. Now with his blue t-shirt put on, fit in his jeans and feet inserted inside his sneakers, he walked towards the mirror.

The room, lightened by a candle, drew shadows on the walls. Steve passed a hand through his face, and regarded the wound scarring his face. His left eye was gauged out of his orbit, leaving behind an empty space on his skull. He grabbed the eyepatch lingering on the sink and straps it around his cranium, in order to clout the hole.

"Time to go feed the animals." He blurts out, before he exits the room. There was work to do outside.

**Atlanta, somewhere in a dense forest. Day 4, 1:04 PM.**

**Matt Brown**

Matt's footsteps made the ground tremble as he stepped on the grass repeatedly. His legs were tired and giving in, his breathing was uncontrollable and his muscles felt sore. But he couldn't stop, couldn't slow down. Because if he did, THEY would catch him. Those undead beasts, all of them built out of decaying bones, rotten skin, soulless eyes and torn apart garments, would clutch onto his body and devour him. And that wasn't probably a good thing to go through.

He looked past his shoulder quick as a flash. The small horde of zombies were still too slow to catch up to him and were really far away from him, but they would eventually reach him. He just had to keep running.

Beside him was his friend Billy Coleman. They were both of the same age and were in the same form in highschool. Billy was a guy with short, blonde hair and was wearing a red jacket with blue jeans. The duo was sprinting like madmen through a forest in unison; despite the fact that they were lost and didn't know where to go.

Exhaustion came like it always did and Matt was forced to come to a harsh halt. Once his legs had stopped, he leaned up against a tree and panted heavily. His throat was aching from the strange respiration he had been doing for a few minutes now and his brain was a bit dizzy. Billy stopped dead on his tracks too and leaned on his knees, catching his breath like Matt.

"Fu…fuck, man…" Matt sputtered, looking at the trees around him. Some straws of sunshine penetrated the leaves and branches, illuminating the forest with bright dots. "I…I gotta stop…I'm all out."

"Me too, bro…" Billy admitted. He couldn't resist but fall on his ass, as he butted his back against a tree. Even through the fabric of his trousers he could fell sharpened sticks stinging his derriere. "But we gotta keep moving. Those things will be on our ass in no time."

"I couldn't agree more." Matt blurted out. The two friends stared at their side and spotted the herd emerging from between bushes and other varieties of vegetation. They were catching up to them.

"Shit, ya talk 'bout the devil...Anyways, let's haul ass." Billy commanded, as both of them stood in a normal posture and continued to dash through the forest, hoping to find some shelter.

**Atlanta, A prison's exterior. Day 4, 1:06 PM.**

**Bianca Reed**

Bianca sat in one of the benches situated inside the large prison van. On the opposite side of the vehicle a police officer, donning a policewoman costume, sat in front of Bianca, before the woman shuttered the door with a loud noise. The small room they were confined in had some dim light erupting from a pair of barred windows around them. A few seconds after, she heard another door closing, and the van's engine lit up.

Bianca lowered her head and gaped at the orange clothes she was wearing, and twirled with the cuffs arresting her wrists behind her spine. It was difficult to accept the fact that it had been two years ever since her first day she spent inside a cell. Time flew out the window so quick she didn't even realize it. And now she was being transferred to a higher security prison. She wasn't all that disappointed though; in her eyes the place she was in before was full of pansies, so perhaps the new prison would be a bigger challenge for her.

She sensed an annoying vibration under her legs due to the van's movement. The policewoman sitting across her had her arms folded and kept her eyes fixed on Bianca. It was unnerving and it slightly pissed Bianca off her judging stare, but she said nothing nonetheless and just kept gazing at her feet.

"Holy shit!" Bianca heard the driver shout. She raised her head spontaneously, before she heard the deafening sound of the brakes making friction with the tires and felt the vehicle zigzagging around in the road. She tried to grip something, but before she could do anything the police van flipped around like they were laundry inside a washing machine. Loud noises of metal crashing and denting blew through her ears, until she struck her head against the wall, before she lost consciousness. And then the noises ceased and her mind went black.

**Atlanta, somewhere in a dense forest, 1:09 PM**

**Matt**

"Fucking finally!" Matt exclaimed.

After a few more minutes of running, there it was. A two-story house was erected in a clearing, right beside a pond. Its walls seemed to be assembled out of wood like it was a log cabin, and it was just the perfect place for them to take cover.

"We might be able to lose 'em in there!" Billy stated, as the front porch and front door grew closer.

They thundered up the degrees of the stairs leading to the porch. Matt basically dived onto the knob, twisting it but nothing happened. "Shit, it's locked!" He affirmed, his body burning and sweating.

Billy was facing the coniferous woods they had been running through the past minutes. He narrowed his eyes, essaying to find walkers following them. He saw none, but he knew that they were gonna persist until they got what they wanted. "You played football, knock it down!" Billy ordered, turning his head.

"Yeah." Matt assented with a nod. He took a few steps back, raising his right shoulder and latching onto his wrist. He began sprinting towards the wooden door; his objective being to take it down.

As soon as his muscle and bone made contact with the door it flew on its hinges. It was impossible for Matt to halt, so he collapsed on the household's hallway, as splinters were stinging his flesh and dust hovered above him.

"Geez, man." Billy muttered, as he seized Matt by the armpits and pulled him up. He was slim and wasn't as bulky and strong as him, so Matt was the one who did most of the work by pushing the floor with his foot.

"I'm fine. Thanks." Matt said in a grunt, twitching his shoulder and swooping away the splinters. He gaped at Billy, and noticed a shocked expression stamped across his face. His hands were shaking, his eyebrows jolting erratically and his eyelids fully opened. "What's wrong… " He was cut off, as he spun around and metamorphosed into a disturbed pose like Billy.

In the hallway of the house, adorned with bookshelves, old paintings and rugs, a chair was toppled over on the ground. Hooked to the colossal chandelier decorated with candles, was a rope. And attached to the end of the rope was a human being.

The zombified man began groaning once he saw human flesh. His arms fluttered around and his body swung around like a merry-go-round, except for his white as milk eyes that remained firm on the two teenagers' figures.

"Oh my God…" Matt sputtered. He couldn't avoid, but he located the nearest vase that stood right next to him and was forced to puke inside like there was no tomorrow. Billy patted him on the back so he would calm down. "We should…put it out of its misery." Matt suggested, although he didn't feel well about doing it.

"I'll do it." Billy volunteered with a sad voice.

He looked around him, before he noticed a set of sharp fire pokers in the corner of the living room. He marched through the hallway, the house seemed impeccably taken care of, and took out one of the deadly objects. He twirled around, as Matt wiped his mouth on his sleeve and coughed into his fist.

Billy stared upwards, regarding the undead creature. Its eyes were soulless. No matter who that person was before, all of that was gone now, turned into a mindless robot. The undead man had a long beard yet a bald head. The clothes he was wearing when he hung himself were pajama pants and a white t-shirt, bare feet. Billy distanced his arms a bit, to give impulse on his hit.

He pushed the rod right into the zombie's brain. The decayed skull was easy to penetrate through. The walker immediately went static, its body losing any kind of life it had before. Some drops of blood splashed onto Billy's face, but he cleaned them away.

"Let's bury this guy before that herd hits us." Billy coldly said.

**Atlanta's Local Zoo, Day 4, 8:00 AM**

**Steve**

The fresh morning pierced Steve's lungs the second he stepped outside. It was sweet. It was way better than the muffled stink that paired inside the obscure bathroom he slept in.

He looked carefully around in each corner of the fence surrounding the zoo. Those fences were sturdy, built of metal and too tall and spiky on the ends for anyone to climb over, meaning he was safe from any menace. The only thing he really needed to do was keep the arched gate shut at all times. Some walkers, who were unfortunate to stumble upon the walls, had their arms lingering in between the gaps, desperately trying to get inside. Albeit it was useless.

Steve picked up two buckets sitting by the door, just when he heard an acute trumpet echoing through the air. The zombies, listening the noise, began waving their arms up and down even faster. Steve turned his head with a smile, gazing at a space enclosed by a small fence.

He walked up to it and faced the creature living inside the cage. It was a baby elephant, being just a bit taller than him. He was a bit large on the side and had quite a tummy, and its ears were just as big. "Heya, Big Paw." Steve greeted, placing a hand on one of the iron bars. The animal responded with a long blink in its cute, teensy eyes and its native sound.

The man set down one of the buckets, and then followed into dumping the other recipient replenished with water into one of the feeding through. Big Paw motioned his like it was a nod, before he used its hose-shaped snouts to suck the water, and then squirt it onto his mouth. "Sorry, can't feed you anymore." He apologized to the elephant, taking the other bucket and dumping some grinded ration on the second feeding through. "I don't have much food. I've been trying to grow food in the zoo's gardens, but…never really have the time though." He told the beast that continued to drink water and sometimes spilling it on its head. "I might have to run into town or something…not sure if you like human food, but you have to eat. Like canned beans, uh? Anyways, bye."

Steve bent and grabbed the other bucket, leaving the empty one behind. He started strolling towards his second destination. The zoo was located somewhere remote off the main city, the whole structure being encircled by trees and plants beyond the fences. Steve was now walking through a dirt road; his only salvation being that some of the trees grew fruit and he had plenty of space to move around or carry projects he could have for the long-term survival.

"Well good morning Skinny." He said hello to the next animal, waving his hand.

The cage he was close to was now constructed into the ground, like it was a spacious yet empty swimming pool. He angled over the handrail, peaking down. He spotted a greenish silhouette stretched out on the floor. The reason he didn't look up at Steve was because his bodily anatomy didn't allow. "Gotcha a treat." He told the crocodile.

He put his hand inside the canister and rummaged through the powdered rations until he found a dead rat. Its intestines were splattered out of its belly and Steve's hand was stained with blood and gore. The crocodile called Skinny grunted in joy, as Steve dumped the dead mouse inside the cage. Skinny's poignant skin shone from the humidity as it opened its massive jaws and involved the rat whose cadaver was elongated on the ground.

Steve sighed. "Things been rough, Skinny, won't lie to you." Steve admitted, the silence being broken by the jaws of Skinny's jaws functioning. "It's only been…a few days I guess. And it's hard to find enough rations for each and every one of you. It's gonna be hard to tend y'all if we think about the long-term. But I won't leave you. Don't worry."

Steve suddenly heard the sound of hurried footsteps behind him. He spun around and smirked once he laid sight on what was there. The panther, black as night, paced towards him at a fast speed, until it laid its claws on Steve's chest in a caring gesture. "Hey, Sunshine." He said, petting the panther's head.

**Atlanta, somewhere in a dense forest, 1:20PM**

**Matt**

Before they decided to put that dead guy in the dirt, Matt and Billy had poked around the house, and it looked to be clear. The kitchen still had its cabinets stocked with edible canned goods and even found some decent knives to fight off the zombies, however the fridge had all of its content unpalatable and it was best to steer clear from it. The two bedrooms didn't have any lurkers inside and contained proper beds, and it felt great to be able to sleep on a bed instead on top of a tree. The basement had various useful tools, such as wrenches, hacksaws and even a Marlin 22. Neither of them knew how to use it, but if they probably weren't gonna need.

In the backyard, the only noises were Billy and Matt thrusting their respective shovels into the ground, before they tossed it on separate piles along with some sighs and panting. Beside him, laid the corpse of the walker they slayed earlier, cloaked with a white sheet. The horde was probably a bit far away, so they had time to bury the walker.

"So…perhaps we should…think about our next move." Matt proposed, taking a break from the digging. He took the chance to breathe heavily.

"I don't think there's nothing else to plan out." Billy contradicted, concentrated on the task. "We've been improvisin' all along and it's worked."

"Maybe, but I'd feel safer if we had a…'road map' to follow." Matt spoke, resuming the mission at hand.

"Want a plan? We stay inside the house until we run out of supplies. And then we push on." Billy summarized what was on his mind.

"That's crazy. I think we should grab as many supplies we can and then get the heck outta here." Matt commented, already knowing that this was one of those moments in which he and Billy would start disputing.

"What?!" He inquired in a perplexed tone, elevating his head slightly. "That's even worst. This house was one hell of a find, why leave it?!"

"We can barely deal with walkers, how you wanna deal with a herd?!" Matt asked. Now both him and Billy had stopped digging, too distracted discussing to do anything else.

"I would like to have a fuckin' roof over my head at night, Matt!" Billy confessed, jabbing his finger on his own chest. "We got everything. Shelter, food, weapons…where else would you want to go?"

"I wanna go into the city." Matt disclosed.

"Not this again!" Billy hissed, revolving his eyes and releasing a sigh.

"I wanna find my family, Billy." Matt conceded with a firm voice. "Know if they're okay."

"We don't have the time!" Billy hollered. "They're probably dead like mine. So get over it!"

Matt gulped. He knew that what Billy was saying was probably true. It was hard to believe that the two people he held the nearest to his heart had perished and were probably now roaming the streets, craving for human flesh.

"Didn't have to be such a dick about it." Matt spat in a low voice, throwing the shovel on the ground and heading towards the front porch to enter the house. Billy sighed again and pinched his nose bridge.

**Atlanta's Subway System, 1:08 PM**

**Victoria**

Victoria woke up from her deep slumber, as he felt something scratching her cheek. She opened her eyes. She couldn't see much, the light was dim inside whatever place she was in. Her eyes rolled sideways and her heart almost stopped when she spotted a rodent biting her cheek.

"Jesus!" She yelled feebly. Her voice rang out in an echo, as she used her right hand to push the vile creature away. The rat squeaked, before it ran away and vanished into the darkness.

Victoria couldn't see anything. The only thing she sensed was that she was lying on her back against a cold surface. Her bones felt sore and she had aches all over her body; she wasn't getting up so soon. She passed a hand through her forehead and extended her eyelids when she saw blood on her palm.

"What the…" She murmured, before some memories came into her mind. She was riding the night subway when everything began shaking, and after that everything was black.

She raised her head when she listened to a sound. A groan. She blinked several times, trying desperately to get used to the obscurity. It was killing her, hearing something in the dark, and not being able to see it. Perhaps it was her imagination, but it was enough to get her nape hair horrent.

"Holy…" She whispered when she saw the subway's driver through the small window on the control room's door. The driver had putrid skin, and was squeezing his body against the door. She wasn't sure what that was…but it wasn't human. And she had to get out of there.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Walking Dead: Life & Death**

**Atlanta, Underground Subway System, 1:10 PM**

**Victoria**

The young woman spun around on the floor and slowly got up, using the nearest bench for support. Her sore bones crackled as she stood up, and she let out a few grunts. Once she was on her feet, she noted her legs to be a bit feeble. She felt like she was off balance and could fall at any minute, which made her lower limbs tremble a bit. Her eyes began to adapt, and she could detect most of the subway's windows shattered and that she was alone in that one carriage.

She turned around and gaped at the driver, who was still battering on the room's door to get her. She was confused and had no idea of what was going on. But she knew that she was drowning in an obscure penumbra and she had to get to the streets. Find someone who could help her, the police, something.

She looked to her left and spotted that the door was luckily open. She shuffled through it, stepping into a tunnel dipped in an ebony abyss. She couldn't know how long was the tunnel. The silence was oppressing, only sometimes hearing a squeak or the sparkles of a broken cable, that lit her surroundings for a millisecond.

Not knowing any other choice, she started dragging herself with a hand propped against the crashed subway along the tunnel, hoping to find a way out. She sometimes had to avoid larrikin debris and her pace was loitered. And thankfully, she could see a light at the end of the tunnel: an escape.

**Atlanta, Underground Subway System, 1:30 PM**

**Bianca**

"Fu…fuck…!" Bianca sorted in pain.

She herself wasn't going to good too. Ever since the van had been flopped around, gravity was altered and Bianca was lying on the wall, her wrists scratched and a chop across her forehead. She had survived the crash. Outside, she could hear the sound of the engine deteriorating, and could even get a small sniff of the smoke. She peaked towards the driver's seat, and spotted a shadow bent over the steering wheel, immobile. But that wasn't the same thing with the policewoman in front of her.

The policewoman was moving. She was rolling around on the ground, flailing her claws towards Bianca. The only thing stopping the woman from reaching her was Bianca's foot thrust in her chest. The woman had rotten skin and her eyes were grey and empty like two big moons. She seemed to have died from the impact, considering a metal rod that had gone through her chest. But she was back. And different.

"Why…you ain't…dead?!" Bianca shouted between breaths, concentrating her strength on keeping that creature from her.

Then salvation seemed to show itself. Her head dropped and she sighted the Glock 17 buried in the cop's belt, a bit within her reach. It was a tricky move, but she couldn't fool around for too long. But she was struck with realization when she remembered that her hands were tied behind her back.

Only one thing came to her mind.

She kicked the zombie to the side and leaned to her left. The slight inclination made her slide along the vehicle, until she reached the two doors situated in the back of the van and erupted out of them, collapsing onto the concrete road.

Panting, she was extended on the ground. And she realized her mistake.

"Son of a bitch!" She yelled, before the police woman leaped on top of her. Once again she used her knee to keep her from coming, but it was hard to keep the zombie balanced on her leg to halt it. Why did she do that? Now that same mistake could have well cost her life.

Then a sudden bullet cut through the air light as a feather, piercing the undead woman's skull. The biter lost any life in it, becoming immobile on Bianca's knee. She let out another grunt, before pushing the cadaver to her side.

She turned her head in a hurry and saw a man, holding a gun in her direction. She used her legs and arms to crawl backwards away from him, but then stopped since she knew if he wanted to hurt her he could easily.

The man lowered the gun and took a step forward. "Get away from me!" Bianca barked.

"Easy." The man said. He wore a red lumberjack shirt, along with jeans and hiking boots. It was apparent that he was quite tall and even beneath the tissue of his clothing strong muscles could be detected. His brown hair and stubble were in a disarray and he had glowing beige eyes. "I just saved your life. A thank you wouldn't hurt."

"Lay off." She insisted once again, as she essayed to get on her knees.

"What's with the prison suit?" He enquired, gesturing to the orange garments.

"I was innocent. Falsely accused." She lied under her breath.

"Really?" He retorted, raising an eyebrow and speaking with a tone revealing he wasn't convinced.

"Yeah."

"Name's Victor." The man presented himself, as Bianca got on her feet. "And I don't take kind to liars."

"I ain't lying." Bianca asserted, looking him in the eyes. "Mind taking off these cuffs? They're really annoying. Almost cost me my life."

"Know what? I think it'd be best if you stayed chained for a while." Victor told her with a smirk, causing her to sigh in frustration. "That bullet's gonna attract every rotter for miles. My advice would be to get the hell outta here."

"Rotters'?'" She repeated in a daze. "What the hell is that?"

"I can see you aren't updated on the news." Victor acknowledged approaching Bianca. "The world we knew, gone. There're these creatures, like that one who was trying to bite ya, they're all over the place. There ain't no more police, no more civilization. Our main focus now is to survive. And don't let the deadies get to you."

"I…" Bianca was speechless, face to the shocking revelation.

"You're welcome to come with me. I got a safe place in the woods." Victor said, as he spun around and strolled towards the forest. But before that, he halted and looked at Bianca. "What's your name?"

"It's…it's…Bianca."

"Bianca. Look, let me be clear." He talked in a strict tone. "I don't know what you did to get those cuffs on your wrists and that suit on your body. I know your kind. And it's up to you to prove me wrong."

The only thing Bianca was able to do was produce a sound and a nod. Victor nodded in return, before he headed towards the woods. "You coming?" She demanded loudly.

**[FOLLOW VICTOR]**

**[GO ON YOUR OWN WAY]**

**Atlanta, Street Level, 1:13 PM. Day 4**

**Victoria**

She was almost there. After a few minutes of endless limping, the little light at the end of the

tunnel was getting closer to her. This light turned out to be a stair case that led into an exit to the street. She leaned on the handrail, dragging her feet up the stairs. She was relieved to almost be out of there; the fact that she didn't know what was happening and the dark and claustrophobic element in the subway system instilled a feeling of dread down Victoria's spine.

Once she was on the street, she took a deep breath and smiled to have gotten out of that obscure hole. But when she opened her eyes, her smile faded away. It was complete chaos. Wrecked cars; some of them consisting of broken glass, absent tires and bullet holes and others burnt to crisps were crashed into fallen electricity poles. One of the cars had crashed inside a jewelry store, so the reflecting fragments of vitrines, windows and diamond rings littered the floor. Most of the buildings around her; most of them made of brick and three story; had their doors bashed in and windows shattered to oblivion.

But what most spooked her was when she saw three corpses lingering around twenty meters away from her. They had rotten skin, their flesh putrid and void. Their milky eyes were empty like round moons, some of them were missing one and had an empty crater for an eyeball. One of them wore the garments of someone who worked in civil construction, the other two donned aprons with a logo, showing they used to work in a food shop.

Victoria was speechless as the dead people twisted their heads. Their jaws, in which flies hovered around, drooped and they grunted, before they started dragging their legs towards Victoria, slow as snails.

She couldn't mouth a single word. She wanted to run, but like she was dipped in a pool of mud, her legs and arms couldn't move. The desire of fleeing from danger was imminent, but the fear, the intimidation stopped her.

"Hey!" Someone whispered to her. Victoria turned her head and saw an African-American man, standing in an alleyway. His dark skin matched his black needle hair and his brown eyes, and his bulky stature made at least 5 foot tall. He had a backpack suspending off his back. "Do you wanna get munched? Come here!" He spoke in a light tone to avoid attracting attention, but just enough for her to hear.

"I…I…" Victoria stuttered.

"Hurry!" He insisted.

Victoria gulped. She looked back and forth at the walkers and back at the man, and the choice was easy. Following the guy was preferable.

With trembling legs, she sprinted slowly towards the man, serrating her teeth so she would scream (she only made some low noises.).

"Here, they spotted you already!" The man observed, as Victoria entered the alley. "We gotta go."

"W-Wait!" Victoria halted him, already panting from the short run. Some blood came from her head due to the underground accident and her legs felt like she sprained an ankle. "This…this is too much…"

"Look, I'm Oliver." He presented himself, the lurkers in the street gradually approaching. "They're gonna find us soon. Come with me, I got a safe place with a few friends."

"I'm…I'm Victoria…" She said, a bit overwhelmed by everything happening so fast. "What the…the hell happened to the world?"

"You don't know?"

Victoria shook her head negatively.

"Well, look…it might be a bit shocking, but I can't tell you this right now." Oliver told her with a sigh. "I know we're strangers, but now we gotta go. C'mon!"

**Atlanta, House in the Forest, 6:01 PM. Day 4**

**Matt**

Day goes by fast, and night is settling soon due to the current season. During the day, Matt and Billy don't exchange a word. They still kept hateful heart-feelings over the discussion they had over going to Atlanta to find Matt Brown's parents as they buried that dead dude.

As Matt did inventory, it seemed like they had everything well stocked. They had a lot of canned goods; albeit everything that was in the fridge was rotten and non-edible. They had tools to fix things and fighting off zombies, along with that Marlin 22., in which none of the two students touched; they were afraid of blowing off a finger. Matt fiddled with some papers about electricity bills, which revealed the walker's name to be Earl Moore.

Billy was surveying the windows. With his hands behind his back, he constantly stopped by a window, with a finger discretely pushed away the curtains and peaked outside. The horde was passing by, there were perhaps forty of them. Dark silhouettes roamed in the blackness, and Billy hoped with all his heart that they didn't clash against the house or for some illogical reason start battering down the door. Taking some time to breathe, the only images going by his mind was that day in which everything changed.

_FOUR DAYS AGO…_

_Matt and Billy had been friends ever since they got in the same form. Billy's mom, Janice, worked as a math teacher in that same school. After their day was over, Matt and Billy waited for fifteen seconds for Janice to finish her work, and she would offer to carpool Matt home._

_So four days ago Matt and Billy sat under the small roof just outside the entrance of the school. They were propped against the wall, backpacks dangling from their backs and dressed in their impermeable coats. It was a rainy day, drops of water falling off the sky and the sky grey as a dead body. _

_ "Have you heard those news on the TV?" Billy asked Matt, sipping some Sprite._

_ "No. What is there?" Matt replied with an answer, he drinking a can of Fanta._

_ "Shit, bro, it's all over the channels!" Billy exclaimed, shocked his friend didn't know. "They say that there have been sightings of…guess what?"_

_ "Bigfoot? Slenderman? Loch Ness monster?" Matt guessed in a row, with a grin._

_ "Nope." Billy smugly smiled. "Dead bodies that walk…"_

_ "What do you mean?" Matt enquired more seriously, feeling confused._

_ "They say that the cops are investigating cases of maulings caused by walking corpses." Billy explained, shaking his drink and taking another sip. "Crazy, uh?"_

_ "To be honest…that sounds like bull." Matt opinionated. "You sure that didn't happen at a film site?"_

_ "Think it would be on the news if it were fake?" Billy demanded with a risen brow. "No. It's one-hundred percent real."_

_ "Well, if it's real, it's messed up." Matt said. "Cannibals in the city? Those guys, they've been arrested or somethin'?"_

_ "I ain't sure, but I think they were put down by the police on location." Billy elaborated, before taking a look at his watch. "Y'know, it's been nearly forty minutes."_

_ "Forty?!" Matt repeated in bewilderment._

_ "Yeah. Think we should check on my mother?" Billy inquired._

_ "Yeah. Let's be sneaky, we really shouldn't be inside after school hours." Matt asserted, as the duo pushed the door open and entered._

_ The duo of students then walked to the room where Janice usually gave her classes. It was quite a long walk; they had to do twists and turns amid the lockers, cases of school trophies, pictures of remarkable students and works made by pupils._

_ "There she is." Billy indicated, reaching the room. He knocked on the door. "Mom? You there?" No response. Billy looked at Matt, the latter shrugged his shoulders. It was bizarre, the last time they knew she was in there. "Mom? We're coming in."_

_ In current time, they wished they had never opened that door. Once Billy revolved the handle and let the door fly on the hinges, they were confronted by the most horrible sight possible. Janice was collapsed on the ground, blood splattered on the chairs and all over her. Her guts had been torn off by the Science teacher, who was on his knees eating her intestines. But the difference was that the teacher, had a mask of grey and decay stamped on his face._

_That thing wasn't human. It was a soulless creature devouring Janice._

_The first thing that came to Matt was exit the room and vomit on the ground so hard he was to bend in two. Yet Billy stood there, staring at the scene incredulously. _

_And that event was the one that would break Billy irremediably forever…_


End file.
